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One of the major noise sources on many motor trucks is the cooling fan. The ability of the cooling system to maintain adequate engine temperature is dependent on the performance of many components in addition to the fan. These components, which include the engine, the radiator, the fan shroud, the radiator shutters and the engine compartment, also influence the noise generation process. Using a systematic approach, each of these components was optimized to reduce the cooling system noise generated by the fan. The basic approach was to improve the cooling system efficiency, after which the improved cooling ability was traded for reduced noise by decreasing the fan speed. Using this approach, the cooling system noise level was reduced by nearly 20 dB(A) on the test vehicle with no loss in cooling ability.